Having plunked $30,000 into The Clark over the past four years, every day that his boat is out of the water adds to his financial woes.įans of Gold Rush will recognize the similarities to the process of filtering out gold fragments from heaps of mud. One hundred and eighty thousand in the red owing to hospital bills racked up following a stay for a foot infection, Tenhoff and his “green horn” deck hand live in a Yurt plopped down on the wind whipped beach. “Nome it’s off the road system and off the greater supply system,” Tenhoff explains as they pick over the rusted out carcasses of dead automobiles, “and there aren’t a lot of big corporate mainstream supply outlets for things you might need for building a boat.” When a drive belt snaps aboard The Clark - a rectangular barge fitted with an old Volkswagen engine that runs the ship’s gold sluice - captain Zeke Tenhoff and his art student deck hand, Emily Riedel (Steve’s daughter), head off to scour the scrap yards that ring Nome in search of a replacement. The boats themselves, 20-ft.-plus crafts that look like leftover props from Kevin Costner’s Waterworld, are constantly breaking down. Unfortunately, his path to fiscal redemption is blocked by several obstacles, including Steve Riedel, an obstinate deck hand who lives in an abandoned school bus, and who disappears for hours when sent on simple errands. “I’ve got bills to pay that if you don’t pay, you go to jail for.” Meisterheim tells the camera. Owing roughly $150,000 in missed child-support payments, his need to “land on the gold” in the murky, 45 degree Nome waters is all too palpable.

Like most of the lanky, smokestained cast of Bering Sea Gold, Meisterheim is up to his eyeballs in debt. Pete Davidson, John Mayer, Busta Rhymes Help Dave Chappelle Celebrate 50th Birthday in NYC

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